r/GoldenGirlsTV

As someone who has watched The Golden Girls more times than I can count, this honestly changed the way I see Betty White forever.

I stumbled across a clip of Golden Girls writer Stan Zimmerman talking about what taping nights were really like behind the scenes, and it genuinely made me emotional.

He said that back then, the writers used to get frustrated with Betty because whenever Estelle Getty struggled with a line, Betty would immediately start joking with the audience and breaking character. Bea Arthur apparently hated it too because she was such a disciplined stage actor and believed everyone should stay fully in character during scenes.

At the time, people assumed Estelle just wasn’t learning her lines well enough. What they didn’t fully understand yet was that Estelle was already dealing with the very early stages of dementia.

Years later, Zimmerman realized he may have completely misread Betty’s behavior. Looking back, he believes Betty wasn’t trying to steal focus or mock Estelle at all. She was intentionally drawing the audience’s attention onto herself so Estelle had a few precious seconds to regroup, check her reminders, and find her place again without a silent audience staring at her.

Honestly, as a fan, that absolutely broke my heart.

And it also made me appreciate Betty in a completely different way. We already knew she was funny and quick and brilliant, but the idea that she may have been quietly protecting Estelle in real time while everyone misunderstood her just feels so deeply in character for who Betty seemed to be as a person. 💔

Also, one fun side note from Zimmerman: despite all the rumors over the years, the cast apparently rarely ad-libbed. The scripts were just THAT good.

I don’t know. Maybe I’m emotional because I’ve loved this show for so long, but hearing this story made me love these women even more.

I recently started working in a food pantry, and the organization has been overwhelmed, so addressing certain problems just haven't gotten the attention they deserve for a while. One of those problems is that our storage room is full of cases on cases of dried garbanzo beans! We have our normal ordering where we get to choose what we stock, but we also have an event once a month where our food bank sends us pallets of food we don't choose in order to move food off their shelves, and that day we give out pre-packed bags of food to whoever comes, and the rest goes to the pantry to give out for the rest of the month. It seems like we just keep getting more of these dried garbanzo beans in each month, and our typical clients don't want them. I've seen many clients opt out of getting any proteins at all if we don't have meat that we can give them. I want people to get the nutrition they need, that we have available, and I want to clear our shelf space to be able to also keep fruit and vegetable options in stock.

The community my pantry serves is mostly black, so I'm looking for recipes that might be similar to foods they would have grown up with that would make these garbanzo beans appealing. I'm asking this specifically because I'm hoping to have recipe cards available that might prompt our clients to choose to try them, as opposed to just slipping in these dried beans into every bag, which will then just take up space on their shelves. Any insight is appreciated.

The whole story just stinks. It is not plausible in the least bit. I mean, come on! Big Daddy was a Republican!

One thing that has always baffled me is how do they live in Miami yet wear sweaters, flannel nightgowns, and other clothes with fabrics that make you hotter. Good A/C? But they come in and go out wearing these hot winter clothes. Baffled.

Are you guys interested in doing the mad libs with me? I bought it ages ago and no one wanted to play at work or at home. True fans would make me happy to do it with. Lmk

I relate to that way too much as an insomniac.

Looking for someone that owns a nice 3-4 bedroom home, single story. Looking for that great living arrangement in the eastern U.S. for peace and friendship.

I can half remember a scene with Blanche and dorothy talking about a dress and blanche says something about the dress looking better on a prettier younger woman to which dorothy responds with some zinger. Can anyone help me find the scene?